From Model To Reality

August 4, 2002|By David CM-azares Miami Bureau

The city of Miami, recognized last year as the poorest large city in the nation, is about to begin a massive revitalization project that could turn a depressed neighborhood around and trigger an economic upturn citywide.

City officials and community leaders say the proposed urban renewal project could turn around the struggling Model City area north of downtown by remaking it into a thriving community where people of diverse backgrounds and incomes live together.

They hope to attract businesses to the area and recapture many of the former residents who left the predominantly black area that includes Liberty City.

"People are moving out to Broward County because they want to live and raise their children in nice communities with quality education and facilities," said Gwendolyn Warren, president of Homeownership Trust, which oversees the project. "What we're trying to do is bring them back home."

To accomplish that goal, city officials set up an independent group charged with coming up with the money for the more than $100 million project and builders to construct 500 houses.

City officials plan to spend up to $25 million to acquire land, install utilities and provide services for the area.

Warren said that Fannie Mae, the biggest investor in U.S. mortgages, has committed $100 million to the project for construction and some home-financing costs. Construction is expected to begin by June.

By the time the project is finished in more than five years, planners hope to have created a vibrant neighborhood of nice homes, lush green space, schools and businesses that would boost the city's economy. Similar work could then be done in other Miami neighborhoods that need a boost, including Overtown, Little Haiti, Wynwood, West Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Allapattah, and Edison/Little River.

A big part of the project will be a commercial zone near Seventh Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. To stimulate the area's economic prospects, U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, has helped obtain $15 million in federal funds for a transportation project, and Miami-Dade Community College is planning an expansion of its north campus.

Miami couldn't have picked a better spot to begin a citywide redevelopment campaign. Experts say the city increasingly has become economically polarized, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and the Model City community was one of the hardest hit.

The area has been plagued by vacant lots and the lack of economic development -- factors that contributed to a loss of about 5 percent of its population over the past decade.

That's why the proposed work has captured the imagination of people who live and work in Liberty City, a community designated by the federal "Model Cities" program of decades ago as needing improvement.

"We're very excited because this is our home," said Elaine Black, executive director of Tools for Change, a business development company. "This is positive change so people here can take advantage of all the commerce that is around them."

Now that the project is on the drawing board, planners and architects are trying to create a pedestrian-friendly area of affordable new homes.

"What we'd like to see is that there's a wide mix of house sizes so that folks of different-sized families will be accommodated," said Joe Kohl, a planner for the project. "By having different types of houses at different prices, it allows different members of the family to live in the same neighborhood."

One thing that residents won't see is a re-creation of the kind of homes in suburban developments. Instead, architects are designing traditional houses that match the character of existing buildings for the project.

"We don't want it to look like it just dropped in from outer space," said Derrick W. Smith of A+S Architects in Brownsville. "We want it to have somewhat of the character of the older neighborhood so that it blends in. Of course they're going to be newer houses, and nicer probably, but we wanted it to be something that you couldn't get in the suburbs."

David CM-azares can be reached at dcazares@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.